When it comes to the environment, Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell says he's trying to do his part to help.

He recycles, drives a hybrid and shops for groceries with cloth bags. He has replaced 42 light bulbs in his home with compact fluorescent light bulbs and buys "green" electricity through Consumers Energy's Green Generation program.

When The Press asked Heartwell and 13 other municipal leaders to grade themselves on a "green scale" of 1 to 10, Heartwell gave himself an 8.

"I certainly don't want to be saying one thing and do another," Heartwell said. "I'm far from perfect, but I'm trying to align my life to these principles."

Georgetown Township Supervisor William Holland drives a GMC pickup with a V-8 engine. He's "not sure" if he enrolled in Consumers Energy's Green Generation program and has not installed any energy-saving lights in his house.

Holland also gives himself an 8.

"If you weren't even trying, then you could achieve a 5," said Holland, the top elected official in Ottawa County's largest municipality.

"I try to be as Earth-friendly as I possibly can. I don't know how else I can put it," he said.

To mark Earth Day, The Press sent a "How Green Are You?" questionnaire to the top elected officials for the 14 most populous municipalities in Kent and Ottawa counties.

After asking about their personal efforts to preserve the environment and reduce greenhouse gases, The Press also asked them to rate themselves.

While Heartwell and Holland gave themselves the highest scores, other environmentally conscious municipal leaders were harder on themselves.

Holland Mayor Al McGeehan gave himself a 4 even though he has replaced all the light bulbs in his house with compact fluorescents, has installed a rain garden in his yard and drives a Pontiac G6 with a four-cylinder engine.

"My father said there's always room for improvement," McGeehan said of his score.

"Maybe I'm worth a 6 if I go out and buy a Prius," he said, speaking of Toyota's hybrid car. "Maybe I get an 8 if I put solar panels on my house."

McGeehan also is trying to use his part-time office to educate his residents. The city recently completed a 10-day series of seminars and programs on "green" initiatives.

"We have no choice but to be talking, thinking and acting in ways to help us sustain the environment," said McGeehan. "It's absolutely the smartest thing we can do."

McGeehan has suggested pairing Holland's iconic 200-year-old windmill with a modern wind-powered generator. He has argued for a ban on plastic grocery sacks in Holland for years.

Though green policies are becoming more popular, even the greenest of politicians knows a green ticket won't garner many votes.

"If I'm a citizen who has lost my job and the bank is ready to foreclose on my house, you've got to believe it's not my top priority," Heartwell said. "But it is a priority for a growing number of our citizens who are concerned about the future of the planet."

Like many local politicians, Gaines Township Supervisor Don Hilton says he has evolved and grown to embrace the environmental movement.

Hilton, 73, lives on an 80-acre farm. He's gone from using DDT in his orchard to a personal ban on all pesticides.

Now, he's pushing to make sure the M-6 bicycle trail gets built. He's proud of new township facilities that capture rain water from roofs and parking lots. That water is used to irrigate the building grounds and fill fire tanker trucks.

On his farm, Hilton said, he captures stormwater from his house and farm buildings in a 3/4-acre detention pond that he's stocked with largemouth bass, bluegills and catfish.

Hilton, who gave himself a 6, said he began to embrace green principles about 10 years ago, when Steelcase Inc. built a new factory in his township that introduced him to the latest in green technology.

Some of the emerging technologies such as wind power remind Hilton of the old days, when farmers filled their water tanks with a windmill.

"We're going to have to go back to these types of things we did in the past," he said. "If we did it then, why can't we do it now?"